Sri,
students in junior high and high school should be told the story of Byakkotai seppuku for HTFU month. While kids these days complain when they have to put their Xbox controller down and mow the lawn, these kids (15-17) got separated from their unit during a battle for their castle. As they were making their way back to the battlefield they saw what they thought might be their castle on fire and being sacked. Not wanting to take any chances at missing out on an opportunity to be hard-asses, or be labeled bitches for not dying in the fight with their buddies, they all decided to kill themselves by cutting open their belly. Being this was a mass seppuku(ing) they didn't have the luxury of a second to cut off their head end their suffering after they did the deed. As it turns out their side won that battle, but hey...they live on in poems and art. The oldest was 17.

Hara-kiri should be instated as punishment in all walks of life.
Shitty baseball games, failiure to ensure oil drilling safety, bad report cards, etc.

Hell of a motivator, slicing your gut open and bleeding to death. (If you behave, you might get a kaishaku... who's sober, and sharpens his blade.)

Sri, if we went to school together we would be friends. I spend time in Chitown (north mostly...Licolnshire/Mettawa/Vernon Hills area mostly), what Ward are you in?

Until mid July, I'm in the Northwest suburbs of Buffalo Grove.
Then it's off to San An, TX.

To my credit, I kept far from anime in my school days. In fact, I was one of the original co-founders of the Japanese cultural club at DePaul U. (We really didn't like the anime club... this was at the time when Naruto was just becoming popular...)

Yeah, my interests in Japanese culture has nothing to do with post-Satsuma clan/Commodore Perry Japan. Not sure how you got on the anime subject...but yea, its weird. I've given it its fair shot, but no thanks.